Sunday, September 29, 2013

Well September sure went by in a hurry! It's been a lovely month, though! I love fall! The kids have been doing great in school. After Calvin's initial love of school, he went through a period of thinking school was not all that great. Mostly it was due to him comparing notes with Ryan about what they did all day. Calvin is in half day Kindergarten, which means he doesn't get to do all of the art/music/gym/multiple recesses/eating lunch with friends that Ryan gets to do. And since those are the only things Ryan usually talks about after school, Calvin was feeling like he was getting a bum deal. But I'm happy to report that he's back to loving it. And I'm pretty sure that half of the problem was him not eating a good breakfast. So I started saying no to Lucky Charms and packing his little tummy full of eggs, oatmeal, peanut butter toast, wheat berries, fruit and the like. And voila! Problem solved! He has been MUCH happier ever since. Just the other day he got in the car and let out a happy sigh and said, "School is FINALLY just like I hoped it would be!" Oh, AND the other day Calvin informed me that Caitlyn, a girl who sits at his table, is in love with him. I asked him why she liked him, and he informed me that it was because she thinks he is cute. I don't know much about this Caitlyn, but I know she has impeccable taste. Oh, and by the way, Calvin is not in love with her "because she is 6." But he does like her as a friend.

Ryan is doing great in school, too. This year I decided to get on top of my parent-of-a-school-age-child game, and make sure that Ryan studied for his spelling tests. I've been helping him. Last year, somehow, I would ALWAYS forget. And our conversations about how he had done on his spelling test would be downright embarrassing. Case in point: one day after school, I asked him how he had done. He said, "Great, Mom! I did way better than last time! I got a 3 out of 10!!!!!" And he sounded genuinely proud of himself. Wow. So this year, I am happy to report that he has gotten 100% on every single spelling test! Go, Ryan! And he is very, very proud of himself. After school on Friday he said, "Hey, Mom, Grace said she wants to come over to my house and study spelling with me so that she can get 100% like me!" Way to go, buddy!

So school is going well. And Ryan has also started piano lessons, which he is loving. And Sophie has been playing with friends and cousins and having a generally great time! And Hannah has been working on sitting up, eating solids like a pro, and trying to learn (ie I am trying to teach her...) how to sleep longer than 3 hours at a time. Honestly, over the past 2 months she ahs reverted to newborn sleeping patterns, and it has been taking its toll on me, for sure! I tried going dairy free for a couple of weeks, and it did seem to help a little with her tummyaches. Now I am reintroducing it to see if she reverts. If I can figure out the tummy aches, I think I am one BIG step closer to helping her learn to sleep through the night. Wish me luck!

Things have been going well for me, too. Despite my lack of sleep, I've been continuing to train for my half marathon and I was really starting to love it until my 10 mile run on Friday. And that almost killed me, I'm pretty sure. Complicating factors, however, were that my iPod battery died at 2.5 miles and that I had a pretty horrible nights "sleep" the night before, but it was really pretty painful. but I perservered! And I'm pretty proud of myself. I didn't even walk any of it. It took 1 hour and 54 minutes, but I did it! Yay! I've also been busy making a baby quilt for Michael's boss' new baby and a variety of other projects around the house. And a nap here and there :)

Michael's doing well with school and work. He's pretty busy these days, but I'm proud of him for working hard and grateful that he still takes time to support me in things I want to do. Like yesterday, when he pretty much had the kids all day so I could take pictures for some friends, go to the Relief Society General Broadcast and have a movie night at a friend's house. Thanks, babe! You rock.

So yeah, that's what we've been up to the last little while! And now for the pictures!

Here are the kids this morning, on our way out the door to church. I love these guys. They are good kids.

I spent a lot of this afternoon helping Ryan with a few things and kind of left Calvin and Sophie to their own devices. I went to check on them and this is what I found. Too funny! Calvin completely covered Sophie with fistfuls of grass, all except her head. And he did a pretty good job, too!

Helping Sophie get cleaned off:

When I lay Hannah down for a nap, she immediately rolls to her side. If she stays there, I know I'm good to go. If she rolls over to her tummy or stays on her back, she never falls asleep. Funny girl!

Here is the quilt I made! I'm pretty proud of it!

Sad story. When we were up in Ironwood a few weeks ago, we had Dad take some family pictures for us. Sadly, I was a bonehead and set the focus correctly on the camera, but not the aperture, etc. So none of them turned out. We didn't figure that out until we were halfway home. Such a bummer. But we re-did them, with AnnaMarie's help on the family shot, and I really like them! So here are a bunch!

I found Sophie playing a snake/Rapunzel/pirate
mashup game the other day. It went a little something like this: The
Princess Rapunzel Snake (see broken necklace in picture) was on a boat
in a river and ran afoul of some nasty
pirates. They tossed her long, luxurious hair into the water, and
Princess Rapunzel snake thought all was lost. Enter: Grandma! She
swooped in (with Lucy in tow), rescued Princess Rapunzel Snake and took
her back to her house where they went swimming in the hot tub and then
snuggled while they watched a movie. Love my silly girl!

Hannah + Oreos = a happy mess:

My telling Sophie the story of Golidlocks and the 3 Bears:

Ryan doing a super awesome word search sent to him by his Aunt Danica.

Found these gems on the iPad...

Ryan made this face when I told him that we would be having squash for dinner:

Jane and Sophie like to play Headbanz, but they are horrible cheaters.

Jane and Sophie!

I gave Hannah a big lipstick to play with, thinking she couldn't get the lid off. I was wrong.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Ryan definitely had fun at his crazy color run--definitely in his element whenever there is a race going on. When all the 2nd and 3rd graders came out of the school for the run, Ryan's class was all sitting together and Ryan ran up for a color refresher treatment (ie more color spray) and Calvin took the opportunity to say to him "Ryan, guess what, I WON THE KINDERGARTEN RACE! I CAME IN FIRST PLACE!!!!!!" By that time Ryan was already heading back to sit with his class and proudly hollered to them all, "WHOA that guy RIGHT THERE won the WHOLE KINDERGARTEN RACE! That's my BROTHER! He must have been going SUPER FAST!" That made Calvin's day, whether or not he actually did win the Kindergarten race, just so hear his older brother be so proud of him in front of his class. It was sweet.

So, Ryan had a great time running with his friends and we all had a great time cheering him on. Afterwards he got to hang out and play at the playground so Sophie and Calvin played there, too. It was a fun afternoon. Ryan ran I think like 1.2 miles or something in 10 minutes, and he was proud! Way to go, buddy!

Calvin and Sophie ready to cheer Ryan on:

Joey and Calvin with their signs:

Scare tactic?

Sophie painted this sign all by herself. Here she is cheering with Sam:

Ryan running:

Sophie smiling:

All of us after the race:

Ryan had a few people really freaked out. But it's just hair color mixed with sweat. Have I mentioned Ryan is a very sweaty kid?

Well, Calvin and Ryan's school has been talking about this fundraiser color run for a while now, and ever since they mentioned it the first time, Calvin has been looking forward to it like none other. The kids get to go out and run around a little course and wear the brightest colors they have and get popcorn and bottled water afterwards. I had planned on showing up to watch but had no plans beyond that. But this morning Calvin woke up SO excited and SO happy and bounded in asking if I was going to make big signs and cheer him on. So, I quickly got everyone ready early and we left for school in time to stop at Walmart first for some poster board and colored hair spray. Once we got to school, I sprayed the kids' hair red and green and Sophie had begged for some pink, so we bought that, too, and made her hair pink (even though I hadn't even brushed her hair yet or anything...). I was planning on heading home after that, thinking I could grab Jacket and do her hair there while I painted the posters. Instead we ended up going over to a friend's house to do the posters and not stopping back by home, which ended up being way more fun, but after "helping" us paint the signs, not having her hair done, then having it spray painted pink, and THEN ending up being so chilly that she needed my sweater, she ended up looking like this:

I didn't really notice until all of a sudden there at the school I actually SAW her and then I was pretty thoroughly embarrassed for taking my child out in public looking like that, but by then it was too late! So instead I just laughed really hard pretty much the whole time. Every time I look at these pictures, in fact, I bust up laughing. Oh, Sophie. She did love those purple bubbles, though, that the school gave out for people to blow at the kids running!

So anyways, Calvin was so SO excited to see us there, complete with signs, cheering him and his class on! He was rearing to go, and I was having fun watching him, until I realized that he was pretending to be a race car and trying to crash into the other kids or bump them out of the way or something. So I (kindly?) hollered at him to cut it out, and then it was fun watching him for the rest of the time! He's convinced that he got 1st. I will neither confirm nor deny that. So way to go, Calvin! You did great on your run! We love you buddy! Ryan's run is this afternoon. My goal is to have Sophie fully dressed and presentable. Wish me luck!

Here is Calvin with his class:

And they're off. Calvin is the middle orange kid in the line of 3 orange shirted kids. It was right after this picture that he gave a healthy shove to the kid he is eying on his left. Then he got hollered at.

No harm no foul? The kid recovered nicely.

Getting a little help from Señiorita Pedro:

Making his move:

100% crazy Sophie getting sassy with the bubbles:

Calvin with his colorful hair:

Sophie with the poster she painted:

Me and Sophie with our signs:

Me and my Calvin buddy. Notice Sophie, photobombing from the stroller with that CRAZY face and hair: